Raid on Kansas newspaper office is a blow to press freedom everywhere

An attack on freedom anywhere is an attack on freedom everywhere.

On Friday the entire 5-person police force of Marion, Kansas, along its police chief and two Marion County sheriff’s deputies, raided the offices of the Marion County Record and the home of its publisher and his elderly mother.

The trauma of the searches is cited by her family as contributing to the death of the paper’s 98-year-old coowner who had to watch as law enforcement searched her home, photographed her son’s bank records and seized computer equipment.

In the search, law enforcement took reporters‘ notes and files, computer servers, computer equipment and even reporters’ personal cellphones. It was an egregious attack on press freedom and an obvious effort for prepublication censorship regarding past alcohol violations of a Marion County business owner, Kari Newell, who is seeking a liquor license.

Law enforcement has alleged the newspaper’s staff committed identity theft, using personal information to access Kansas state databases to find out information regarding Newell’s past law enforcement record. The newspaper publisher has stated the information came from a confidential source that was confirmed through a state records search.

As reported in the Kansas Reflector, the newspaper received information from a confidential source that the business owner had been convicted of drunken driving in 2008 and had driven without a license. A reporter used the Kansas Department of Revenue website to verify that the information was accurate, but the newspaper decided not to publish a story about the information. Marion County Record publisher Eric Meyer said he had notified local police of the situation before the raid.

Disregarding the fact that there is a clear public interest in if someone applying for a liquor license has committed offenses which could potentially prevent them from holding the license, it is important to note that the story had not been published. Constitutional scholars and the U.S. Supreme Court have ruled that the first amendment protects media outlets from pre-publication censorship efforts.

The attorney who requested the search warrant and the judge who signed it ignored the provisions of the federal Privacy Protection Act which limits law enforcement use of search warrants or ability to seize information protected by the First Amendment. This provision exists to prevent the very circumstances that are currently taking place in Marion, Kansas.

The law and the many court rulings upholding press freedoms over the years recognize the need to prevent governments at any level of using members of law enforcement as a weapon against reporters and publications who are doing their job of keeping the citizens informed.

A letter from the Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press, signed by 34 news media and press freedom organizations condemns the raid. “Newsroom searches and seizures are among the most intrusive actions law enforcement can take with respect to the free press, and the most potentially suppressive of free speech by the press and the public.”

It would be easy to say such a thing couldn’t happen here. Thanks to the commitment to open government here in Wisconsin, court records are easily and publicly accessible both online and at the courthouse. Likewise, it could be hoped that Wisconsin law enforcement and judges would be hesitant to send officers in to seize reporters‘ notes and reporting tools and instead use the subpoena tools in place.

While it can be hoped that Wisconsin would be immune from the festering rot of corruption that has boiled up in Marion County, Kan. this week, the reality is there are always those who would seek to use force to suppress the people’s right to know and who would silence opposition through oppression.

At best, the incidents in Marion County, Kan. show a lack of understanding of the law that resulted in a First Amendment violation and a wrongful death. At worst, it reveals a conspiracy of corruption by those in power to willfully suppress those who would oppose them regardless of the harm done to individuals or to a free society.

The actions in Marion County, Kan. could simply be cascading incompetence, but it is necessary to be vigilant to the infectious rot of tyranny.